Percentage or mileage?

"after all the deductions???? WTH exactly are you talking about, deductions?"
[is what I'd be asking if you said this to me as a prospective driver]

You're in the wrong place to be asking for best option for OWNER. But since you ask, unless you're billing $1.00 mile for your truck, you're better off (cheaper) to pay 40 cpm but I think you know this. Are you trying to say you're having problems keeping drivers and want to try and sweeten the pot?

I'd be happy to drive for 40% of truck gross, but something tells me I'm not getting the whole story.

 

Normally with percentage it goes like this, the load not including fuel surcharge pays 1000.00, the driver should get a 27% split. So the driver would get 270.00. The expenses are your problem not the drivers. Any where from 25 % to 28% is normal for percentage pay.

 

dispatch fee???? Is that like the "Protection Package" at the new car dealer?

I assume you're working with brokers, and don't directly bill shippers, and thus don't use the fuel surcharge system, so I can sort of understand the percentage model you're thinking on. But when your insurance rates go up and fuel goes goes up, the driver gets 40% of less net? (assuming your average gross to the truck remains generally constant and fixed in the short term) Not sure that's fair to the driver.

And yes, I get it that you think it's not fair to you to have to pay the driver more because your insurance went up and had to raise the freight rates, but that's built in "pay raise" that is common practice in the trucking industry (25-35% of gross before FSC, depending on a lot of particulars about the job and it's requirements in a given scenario)

A lot of bosses will/can play all sorts of games with the numbers when paying driver a percentage. You read about it a lot here in the forums. A lot of it is driver's assuming they're getting screwed, a lot of it is drivers don't understand the process, a lot of it is vague or weak language in the percentage agreement between boss and driver. So be prepared for a driver to "question the math" at some point.

 

I'm not sure if you're dealing with an O/O or a company driver.

But, I'll give you my opinion as a company driver who is paid on a split of hourly and percentage. Everything I do within a 100 air mile radius of Denver is paid by the hour, beyond that I get 30% of the amount charged (less FSC). So, if they bill the broker $1,300 and the FSC is $300, my pay will be based $1,000 load, thus I get $300.00 to drive the truck. As a rule, I'll make more than a driver paid by the mile, BUT, sometimes the load will pay more if it had been hourly, though not often, typically it's a wash. I also get detention pay. On loads that are local and paid hourly I don't, but on percentage loads, I also get 30% of what they charge for detention time. Our detention rate varies from $65/hr to $100/hr, after 2 hrs free time. Any driver assist or driver unloads have no free time, and detention starts immediately.

Here's a pay comparison for you. This past week, I made two runs Denver, Co. to Alliance, Ne. and back. One day was 491 miles, the other was 496 miles. The actual miles for the run are about 470 miles. Based on the OP's rate of $.40 cpm, those runs would each pay me $188. Based on my percentage rate, 30%, I'll make $260 on each one. The other 20 miles, was some local stuff I did at the end of the day, for which I'll be paid by the hour.

Personally, I'd rather be paid on percentage. If the company is operating correctly and has their expenses in order, they should be more than willing to switch to percentage and put more money in their drivers pocket.

 

It depends entirely on how much the dispatcher likes you and wants to give you the short dead-head, high dollar loads on percentage.......they can make it whatever they want it to be.....and I'm thinking you already know this. In the same regard, you can run on mileage pay like a taxi and they can to some extent give you the easy or hard, short or long loads there as well depending on whether they like you, you're their boyfriend, you like the same football team, you have a beard like the guys on Duck Dynasty, etc.
It's all relative and you have to look at the big picture and decide whether you trust them to give you a good deal that allows you to make money or whatever you're after.